Paul's Passing Thoughts

“Christian fathers have been sold a bill of goods. They have been told by the inept Christian academia of our day that they are not qualified to teach their families the word of God. Supposedly, the academiacs are the experts, but all they have done is regurgitated Reformed orthodoxy and tradition for hundreds of years.”

I became a Christian in Dallas, TX circa 1982. I was pursued by a young Christian zealot named Mark Cline. Mark was an individual whose life commanded respect from the saved and unsaved alike. Mark was a member of the Prestonwood Baptist mega-church located in Plano, TX during its infancy. I often visited with Mark and associated with the young singles group there. Mark died unexpectedly during minor surgery; an event that facilitated my full commitment to Christ. I now know why God took Mark home; the insidious scandals that where revealed at Prestonwood shortly after Marks death would have absolutely crushed him. The infamous womanizing founder of the church, Dr. Bill Weber, who Mark had infinite respect for actually conducted Mark’s funeral.

I moved on and eventually joined Richardson East Baptist Church where my calling to the ministry was formally recognized four years later. The pastors that participated are men of qualities hard to find in our day—that means a lot to me. But as one who grew up in the faith as a Southern Baptist, being Protestant has always been the greatest challenge in maintaining my faith. How can I still have complete faith in God and His Son after all that I have witnessed among Southern Baptists? It can only be chalked up to saving faith.

Recently, I have finally concluded what the problem is. It’s our foundation. Protestantism itself is the problem. First of all, it was founded on the false gospel of progression justification; that was Luther and Calvin’s gospel. Protestantism is a religion founded on a false gospel—it’s just that simple. Empowering the laity and starting home fellowships is not a radical alternative, it’s the only solution. “That’s throwing out the baby with the bathwater!” Absolutely, the baby is a Nephilim. That’s what Christians have to come to grips with in our day: the Western church was built on a faulty foundation. The only true road to revival is a rebuilding on the authority of God’s word. The anemic American church’s lust for control and indifference to spiritual abuse does not happen in a vacuum—it happens because of the pagan foundation it is built on.

Thank goodness for the New Calvinism movement. It is responsible for drawing attention to the real problem. Authentic tyrannical Reformation doctrine oscillates between the weakness/easy believeism that it created and New Calvinist resurgences claiming that the full dose of the disease is the cure for Calvinism Light. The president of Southern Seminary recently stated that Reformed theology in the form of New Calvinism is the “only alternative” for the present condition of the church. He failed to mention that Reformed theology is responsible for the present condition of the church to begin with.

In contrast, Susan and I have learned more about Christianity in the past six months than we have in the combined eighty years of our Christian lives. And I wonder if we haven’t had a bigger impact in the lives of others than we ever have as well. This is the result of merely studying the Bible for ourselves, and with the minds God gave us. But the statement by Al Mohler really incited me to make the Potter’s House an official church. Susan and I have filed the necessary papers with the state of Ohio. The Potter’s House will operate as a non-profit organization under TTANC L.L.C. (a non-profit LLC). Our Sunday evening Bible study will start at 7PM and will be streamed live weekly. All are invited to join us.

We endeavor to incite others to be the alternative to the formal church’s present-day tyranny and arrogance born of the Reformation. Christian fathers have been sold a bill of goods. They have been told by the inept Christian academia of our day that they are not qualified to teach their families the word of God. Supposedly, the academiacs are the experts, but all they have done is regurgitated Reformed orthodoxy and tradition for hundreds of years.

We hope to publish materials that will aid the laity in teaching their families the word of God. We hope this will be a major thrust of our ministry. Our present materials can be found at tancpublishing.com. We also have plans to start a Bible Institute as well.

Our new church website address is freebereans.blogspot.com. It is also the location of our live feed for the Sunday Bible studies.

Because only truth sanctifies,

Paul and Susan Dohse